The Pacific and Other Stories [Mass Market Paperback]

Mark Helprin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 2005

At long last, almost ten years since his previous book, Mark Helprin returns with The Pacific and Other Stories, a collection of sixteen stories that display the remarkable scope, incomparable wit, and deft prose that have come to be his signature. A British paratrooper jumps into occupied territory; the 1958 New York Yankees gain an unexpected teammate in a puny, teenaged Hasidic Jew; a September 11th widow receives an astonishing gift from the contractor working on her new apartment—these and other stories exhibit the constantly changing variety of the ocean itself, the peaks and troughs of life. Lighthearted, glittering fables are met with starker tales that sound the depths of sacrifice and duty. The Pacific and Other Stories is a resplendent, powerful collection of lasting substance and emotional import.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As ambitious and imaginative as any of Helprin's past works (Memoir from Antproof Case; Winter's Tale; etc.), the 16 stories collected in the author's first book in nearly a decade are gloriously rich and varied. In "Perfection," Helprin's fabulist skills glitter as a Hasidic boy from 1958 Brooklyn makes a pilgrimage to "the house of Ruth" in the Bronx, believing that he must save Mickey Mantle and the "New York Yenkiss." Other tales explore loss, regret, retribution and time's passage, their exotic locations—Italy, France, Israel, the orange grove–era Pacific coast—imbuing them with exuberant life. In "Il Colore Ritrovato," a bookkeeper-turned-impresario, who years ago discovered one of the world's greatest (and unhappiest) opera singers, happens upon another untrained but perfect soprano and wrestles with his conscience about introducing her to the professional world. In "Monday," an honorable contractor willing to sacrifice other contracts and his own reputation to renovate the home of a woman whose husband was killed on September 11 learns "the power of those who had done right." "Passchendaele," a story of unrequited passion between a Canadian rancher and his neighbor's mute wife, is tender and moving, as are "Last Tea with the Armorers" and "Prelude," each demonstrating immense faith in the power of love. These are sturdy, rewarding stories from a master of the form.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Helprin, author of Ellis Island and A Winter’s Tale, brings to this collection his usual deep look into life, love, and war in prose as "glassy and smooth as amber" (Los Angeles Times). Yet, written over two decades, these stories befuddled a few critics. Some praised Helprin’s wise themes, character studies, dazzling prose, and detailed descriptions of how things, like baseball, work. Most agreed, however, that Helprin paints overly broad generalizations when it comes to people: honorable, brave men and beautiful women. "Jacob Byer and the Telephone," for example, has a fresh plot and protagonist, but a simple, emotionally unsatisfying moral at the end. Yet, even with faults, Helprin’s world still "takes on a kind of fairy-tale luster" (Washington Post). It’s just a matter of if you want it displayed in technicolor, or simplified in black and white.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); First Printing edition (June 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143035762
• ISBN-13: 978-0143035763
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #637,139 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Educated at Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford, MARK HELPRIN served in the Israeli army, Israeli Air Force, and British Merchant Navy. He is the author of, among other titles, A Dove of the East and Other Stories, Refiner's Fire, Winter's Tale, and A Soldier of the Great War. He lives in Virginia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not To Be Missed, October 31, 2004

By 

J. Brian Watkins (Laie, Hawaii) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Pacific and Other Stories (Hardcover)

This book replaces a tattered notebook of Mr. Helprin's stories containing copies I have culled from various and sundry sources and to which I often return. The writing is beyond my ability to praise. Reading his work can be compared to listening to a gifted musician; his prose is musical and ideas profound.

These are moral tales. I believe that much of Mr. Helprin's fiction evidences a deep frustration with the fact that we live amidst such richness of knowledge and opportunity in an incredibly beautiful world yet we fall prey to lesser enticements; we ignore or forget the truths upon which anything good and true must rest. They are stories about discoveries of surpassing worth and importance. We owe it to ourselves to turn off the TV, put down the newspaper, and give Mr. Helprin a chance to point us to our better natures.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "His writing remains the gold standard of American fiction", December 7, 2004

By 

T. Gervat "Tom Gervat" (Westwood, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pacific and Other Stories (Hardcover)

Perhaps it is good that we are blessed with the riveting wonderment of a Mark Helprin short story collection every
other decade or so. His stories are so infused with light that their sheer brightness frightens away those who would prefer their fiction to reflect things the way they would want them to be rather than the way they are in the light of eternity. "The Pacific And Other Stories" is fiction bathed in glory, yet with its feet still on the ground. Even through absurdity and laughter, the power behind the prose never wavers, remaining irrevocable and true as a swallow on it's way home. Mark Helprin's anointed prose ever lingers on the threshold of immortality, paradoxically beyond words. It lures and beguiles you like a tender breeze on a warm summer's evening, only to sometimes return and break the deepest part of your heart in the end. But when the end comes, you will find that you have made a wondrous journey which you would not have missed for all the world.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The sweetest tears, January 21, 2005

By 

K. J. Overfelt - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pacific and Other Stories (Hardcover)

For many years now, when I forget how precious life is, I re-read Helprin's short stories, and, inevitably, I cry, regardless of the outcome of the story. His storytelling moves me profoundly, in ways that I'm just too inarticulate to express. And so it is with "The Pacific". I'll remember every word of "Monday" for the rest of my life. I'm humbled by his ability to capture what makes life worth living, even in the darkest moments of his characters' lives. I'm glad to have him back on my bookshelf (where he doesn't spend much time, considering I've read "Soldier" at least 12 times; 3 years ago I bought a cheap paperback version because hauling the hard back copy to the beach was impinging on my carry-on limit and the sand content accumulated between the pages was making it too heavy to lift).

Buy and treasure this book.